I’m a sucker for dark academia books as well as moody vampires and the academic rivals-to-lovers trope, so An Education in Malice was everything I could have hoped for in a book. The atmosphere instantly drew me in, accentuating dark and gloomy aesthetics, and the story was immensely seductive. As a clever storyteller, Gibson masterfully delivers mesmerizing prose with beautiful, gothic descriptions.

However, I must admit that I enjoyed A Dowry of Blood overall more than An Education in Malice. The plot and characters were enjoyable but didn’t give me the same buzz as A Dowry of Blood, where the story left me feeling haunted.

On a side note, I read An Education in Malice while listening to Gibson’s AEIM Spotify playlist, and it made the experience so much fun and more immersive! I highly recommend checking out the playlist!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2f29RqQAMy1YkmiqUFUsg3

Thank you, NetGalley and Redhook Books, for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book! This is my honest review.

An Education in Malice is an extension of the world of Gibson's absolutely devastating A Dowry of Blood. Set in a more modern time period, with new characters (and some returning!) with new desires, this is a dark academia, romantic retelling of Carmilla that will hold you close and whisper in your ear about the revelations of immortality and obsession.

Laura is an intriguing character, so naive when she arrives at Saint Perpetua's but with a side she never lets anyone see. Carmilla is up front about her attitude towards Laura, and it's fun to see them combat each other throughout the beginnings of their time together. De Lafontaine adds such an interesting twist to things, both with her relationships with the girls individually and between the three of them.

The rivals to lovers played out really well, I enjoyed the tension that shifted into craving immensely. The dark academia vibes were very present and well-done, too. The romance felt real in such an intense way, I think it was one of my favorite parts. The smut was 10/10, WHEW, got me blushing with no one even around! Gibson very deftly takes the reader through an exploration of self and sexuality, and validates the experience of not knowing what exactly it is you want, even when you have it. There's a lot of room for discussion about morality and love, where those two things intersect, and how they change - independently and together - if time and distance stop mattering entirely.

The only things I didn't entirely love was that we didn't get as much background info as I would like to have had. We know some things about Laura, but hardly anything about Carmilla, and even less about De Lafontaine. I think the lack of information on De Lafontaine was intentional and it makes sense, considering she's the only of the three without a POV in the book and she was purposely secretive with the girls. But I wish we knew more about the other two. Besides that, I also would have liked to have seen more of Laura and Carmilla's school lives. Saint Perpetua's was an excellent, stunning backdrop to this story, and the New England autumn was gorgeous, I just wish we'd gotten to experience more of it.

Overall, this book is a gorgeous companion to A Dowry of Blood, although slower paced and tragic in a much different way, which I appreciate because it didn't need to be Dowry again. This book has its own story to tell and I think Gibson told it beautifully, with the same prose she's known for from Dowry. Her writing style is consistently graceful and flowing. I think the book could have been longer, with more fleshing out of the school and the characters, but it wasn't way too short by any means, either. It's a very enjoyable read and if you liked Dowry then I think you'll like this, as well. I really loved this and the very minute I can get myself a physical copy I will be doing exactly that.

This book was nothing like the description suggests. The Gothic feel was practically non-existent. The drop that she is what she is so flat and hardly changes anything. She just keeps going to class. This is a book about a young girl being obsessed with her professor with a little love story on the side with no connection. I may have enjoyed it more if it wasn't advertised as a dark academia. It's a love story with a twist that fell flatter than flat.

An Education in Malice had a lot to live up to, as a spin-off/companion novel to A Dowry of Blood, a book that destroyed me back in 2021. Happy to say that Malice more than lived up to expectations, and now I'm stuck here wondering which book I like more.

Sumptuous and enthralling, An Education in Malice is a dark academia Carmilla retelling, set in an elite women's college in the 1970s, centered around the academic rivalry between Laura and Carmilla as they compete for the esteem of poetry professor De Lafontaine. The relationship between these three characters is complicated, full of yearning and obsession and loneliness. Aside from being a sapphic love story, it's also a story of growing up, leaving behind your girlhood, and how exciting yet terrifying that can be all at once. The vampiric element ties so nicely into these themes, as the characters question what it means to face eternity and change.

None of this could have been accomplished if Gibson wasn't such a horrifically wonderful wordsmith. Malice isn't a long book at all, but reading it is like sinking into a warm, candlelit bath that you never want to leave. I would not at all be opposed to another story set in the Dowry universe. Let me drown in this writing.

What can happen when you become obsessed with another? The good & the bad.

S.T. Gibson brings us back into the same world as ‘A Dowry of Blood’ with this new tale. Set at Saint Perpetua’s College, we follow the story through Laura & Carmilla. It’s the same wonderful, sexy, and intriguing world we already now. S.T. Gibson knows how to tell a tale about vampires that both romanticizes & sheds the light on the horrors. The writing paints a beautiful view of the world and moves you at a pace that keeps you invested.

While I enjoyed the book, and was easy to slip and be immersed into the story, I ended up just liking it. I had some feeling about one character that I ended up not liking them. Also I didn’t have any strong attachments to any of the characters.

Overall, another wonderful book by S.T. Gibson. Would give it a 3.75/5 but rounding up to a 4.

Thank you to NetGalley, Redhook, and Orbit for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a fun little story! For whatever reason I forgot this had a paranormal tilt until halfway through the story, and thought it was going more of the way of "My dark Vanessa", which it still was in a way. An interesting look at relationships and power dynamics.

I am beyond lucky to have gotten an ARC for Education in Malice through Netgalley just before I left for my trip. I've been devouring this beautiful book through airports and train stations, and its been my companion to museums and outdoor cafes in Barcelona and Madrid. What better places to read, honestly. Anyone who knows me knows I adore ST Gibson's work, and that A Dowry of Blood is my bible for how to write 2nd person. An Education in Malice did not disappoint--it was stunning, tender, dark, and unbelievably funny wrapped in one gorgeous dark academia bow. Laura and Carmilla are beautifully rendered, and their love story has an earnest passion that coils under the reader's skin and sings on the page. How lucky am I to have gotten to read it as an ARC! Please do yourself a favor and pre-order it before the release date in Feb.

A lush reimagining of Carmilla set around a seclusive women's college, this book combines the trademark prose and lore of Gibson's breakout hit A Dowry of Blood with dark academia sapphics who aren't certain whether they want to kiss or kill each other.

I was very excited when I received an arc for this book from netgalley! I haven’t gotten the chance to read A Dowry of Blood just yet, but I have heard really good things about that book so I was hopeful going into this one. With that being said, I do love her writing style and the atmosphere she sets up for this dark academia / sapphic storyline. however when it came to the plot, i feel like i was just left wanting more. the book started out really good and sucked me right in to the scene she created but the rivals - to - lovers plot felt rushed and i felt like i couldn’t fully connect with them because of it. her writing style is ultimately what kept me reading in hopes that the plot would pick up but the ending to me just felt a little anticlimactic with how things were left with de lafontaine and the girls.

**SPOILER***

i will say the one thing i liked about the ending is that it’s up to interpretation of the reader on whether laura decides to turn or not.

all that said, it’s a solid three star read solely based on the way she writes and atmosphere she creates.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

1.5/5

I had a heard a lot great things about Gibson's work relating to A Dowry of Blood. I am also a fan of the original Carmilla novel, so I was very much intrigued by the concept of a dark academia retelling of it. However, after these reading the book, is entirely possible that Gibson's writing might just not work for me, as almost nothing in this book worked for me.

I will give credit where it's due and mention the only things that did work for me. The atmosphere was set up wonderfully, the academia and the darkness, intermingling with the themes of religion. I also found the professor interesting, on occasion.

Before I delve into my issues, I have to mention that nothing about this book really resembles the original Carmilla outside of the names and existence of vampires. This isn't a huge deal, but calling it a retelling in this case is a curious choice. Be that as it maybe, I am reviewing this book as a standalone work and not in comparison to the classic.

The biggest issue of this book is how unemotional all of it felt. From the characters, to the reactions they had to situations, to the the sex, to.... almost everything. Nothing, outside of some very rare occasions, felt like they had any kind of real emotions.

The characters were dry and underdeveloped. Both perspectives sort of blended together at times. Laura's instant obsession wasn't perhaps the best way to go about this, even I understand the author wanted to explore obsession as a theme. The development of the relationship was not at all interesting, or very believable for that matter. I love a well done rivals to lovers, but it lacked any sort of bite in this story. I never very invested in the characters or the relationships. This extends to all characters, side or main.

This was also a book exploring kink, which was fine, but the insertion of that to certain unrelated scenes were jarring. The internal monologues were just odd to read at times.

All of this could have been partially salvaged by an interesting plot. Alas, there was no such a thing. For most of the book, the plot was aimless. Things happened because the author wanted to include them, like an orgy or a random scene in California, even if they didn't add a whole lot of coherence to the narrative. When the plot finally seems to gets going towards the end of the book, it barely involves our protagonists and is solved like a minor c plot. The protagonists never seem to have any urgency despite the gravity of anything happening around them. I do have a vague grasp of the themes the author wanted to explore, but none of it was well executed on page very well.

The uninteresting characters and the lack of plot made for the book to be very boring and a chore to read. That feels like a worse sin than a book being poorly written(this book is well written at a language level at least), yet being a propulsive read. I don't know if I would have finished this if it was not an ARC.

This was just a really disappointing experience overall. Perhaps I simply wasn't the audience for this.

Another brilliant retelling from S.T. Gibson, An Education in Malic delivers astonishing prose and a poetic, gothic atmosphere. Gibson's sapphic Carmilla retalling offers dual POV—Laura, the freshly enrolled student into Saint Perpetua's College, and Carmilla, the prodigy of De Lafontaine.

The rivalry and competition that evolves between the two is absolutely fascinating to watch unfold, and Gibson's writing style beautifully expands upon the multilayered characters and the way in which their relationships change. All in all, this dark academic retelling truly delves into the genre in a new and intimate fashion, with Gibson's fascinating style once more allowing for a dark dive into a haunting, toxic romance.

An Education in Malice is a sapphic romance with gothic & dark academia vibes, sinister secrets, and vampires!

The writing in this book was so atmospheric and engrossing! Gothic books are literally my favorite type of books, and this had all the gothic vibes! I highlighted so many quotes because the writing was gorgeous! I usually don’t enjoy rivals to lovers, but THIS was rivals to lovers done right! There’s a valid reason that they’re rivals, and they throw jabs at each other rather than there just being one bully. (Well honestly, Carmilla is the aggressor, but Laura be getting with her!) Those are the things that stood out to me most in this novel!

When I first started this book I was OBSESSED! But then I got bored… I wish there had been more depth to the story. The synopsis made it seem like so many sinister & mysterious things were going to happen, but really this was a romance with a very small amount of a sinister subplot. There was a villain in this story, but the villain was rarely seen, only mentioned several times. Not seeing the villain made me very disconnected from them and not scared at all. The sense of urgency that we should’ve felt to defeat the villain wasn’t there because there was no connection to them. I don’t think the book was boring, but I got bored because I wasn’t expecting SOLELY romance. I knew romance was a big part of the novel, but I thought there was more. I definitely expected there to be some horror, mystery, or thriller elements since it’s dark academia and about vampires.

Overall I loved the writing & atmospheric tone in this one, but it’s not exactly as it was advertised. I’d definitely recommend this to someone who loves gothic romance, just don’t expect horror or thriller vibes!

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Redhook Books and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

(Not sure yet if this is a 3.5 or a 4 star rating for me, but I’m rounding it up)

The rating I'm giving here is quite subjective because different folks might have different takes on it. Similar to some of my less enthusiastic reviews, I want to unpack why this particular book didn't resonate with me but could very well strike a chord with others.

An Education in Malice shares the same universe as the highly acclaimed A Dowry of Blood, albeit set many years later. We follow Laura, a college student, who finds herself in an exclusive poetry class where she encounters the beautiful yet haughty Carmilla and the enigmatic, manipulative Professor De lafontaine. Their relationships seem to transcend the ordinary dynamics of a teacher and students, pulling Laura into their complex games.

The issue I found with this book lies in its potential for a compelling narrative, which unfortunately remains largely unexplored. It earnestly strives to capture the essence of stories like These Violent Delights (the gay one) but falls short in delivering emotional depth. The attempt at crafting memorable, obsessive, and sensuous prose comes across as a rushed iteration of the "passionate enemies turned lovers" trope without delving deeply into the character's humanity. The stakes feel trivial, lacking genuine character evolution. Laura's swift fixation on the class antagonist and the subsequent immediate intimacy seem contrived.

Beyond superficial allure, I struggled to discern a convincing reason for Laura and Carmilla's significance to each other. Their association with the professor also feels forced. The narrative is inundated with excessive longing and obsessive musings, lacking a clear focal point. Wheres the malice? I don't even know. Certainly there are people being rivals (ish) but nothing malicious happens here.

While Laura possesses intriguing personal quirks that heighten the intimacy of certain scenes (the sex scenes are FANTASTIC), her lack of depth blurs her distinctiveness when the point of view shifts. Carmilla has slightly more complexity but largely remains a superficial character. Professor De Lafontaine, a pivotal force behind the story's darker and supernatural aspects, emerges as what I can only describe as EXTREMELY ANNOYING, which detracts from the book's appeal. Wrestling with her character becomes taxing due to her pivotal role and desperate desire to be seen as attractive by these much young women and is actually legitimately cringy.

When the book was not getting sexual, it was a snore. The school scenes were extremely boring. The "Laura's friends" scenes were not at all engaging- there didn't feel like a point in giving her friends and it added nothing to the plot. The romance scenes were compelling half of the time, and hard to buy the other half. I regularly found myself skimming. The villain was horrendous, like they were written in at the last second because the author forgot that the book needed stakes.

I think most folks are coming for the romance and that's what really complicated this book for me. The actual romance was bad if you are going in with expectations of a quality work of fiction. Insta-lust dominates the story and every relationship in it. None of the characters seem to know or understand each other outside reading each other's fetishes, and we have minimal scenes of the girls actually connecting. Gibson Throws in these long emotional monologues about obsession amounts to "trust me bro, they have an intense thing." The tropes are academic rivals to lovers and hatefucking, for lack of a better phrase. Having JUST read A Study in Drowning which is also an academic rivals to lovers dark academia, my bar was pretty high.

Heres the thing though- if you are coming at it from a 'trashy romance' angle and drop your expectations to zero, you have a pretty standard horny porn book here, and its at it's best when it abandons any notion of trying to be a real piece of literature and just lets the two slightly more interesting sapphics fuck. If sex and intense emotions are you thing and you don't so much care about how we got here, look no further. I also truly respect the author's willingness to make these queer girlies real pieces of shit. I barely even liked them but at least it was interesting enough to keep reading.

An Education in Malice at engaging aspects, particularly in its intimate scenes, yet fails to infuse its characters with the depth required to make their relationships and struggles compelling. The narrative lacks a solid anchor amidst its swirling emotions, resulting in a superficial portrayal of characters and their interactions. There's an opportunity here to be valuable to folks starved for "bad sapphics", but this is yet another example to me of how people will just latch onto anything if it gives them the rep they are looking for. 2.5/5 for me.
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Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A literary love child of Donna Tartt and Anne Rice, “An Education in Malice” is so much fun to read. The writing is lush and lyrical and I became absolutely immersed in it. This book takes place in the same universe as “A Dowry of Blood” and if you loved that then I promise this one won’t let you down.

A sapphic Carmilla retelling that is hauntingly beautiful. This rivals to lovers, dual POV story set in a Massachusetts school left me hungry for more at every page turn.

This was such an enchanting read! S.T. Gibson has a very poetic writing style that keeps you hooked from beginning until the very end. The characters were also vibrant and enchanting in their own individual ways. There were a few times where I wanted a little more description of the setting, but it didn’t hinder my reading of the story. Otherwise, I had a really fun time reading this story and cannot wait to see what more S.T. Gibson has in store for her other stories! Definitely recommend this read to anyone who enjoys a dark romantic read with fantasy elements.

First off Thank you to NetGalley for the privilege of reading this book!! Thank you to also the publisher!!!

This book was divine!! I devoured this book couldn’t take my eyes off the words. She is just a magnificent writer!!

Sapphic, mythical, and just downright gorgeous writing!!!

Laura is a quiet girl that arrives at university and is studying poetry. She is the only freshman that gets the hot seat in Delafontine’s poetry course. Laura meets the bad girl Carmilla-who has a lot of secrets. She’s always with Delafontine and why is she so hateful? Soon Laura is enveloped into their world and she’s not looking back!!!


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

S.T. Gibson's "An Education in Malice" is a seductive tale of obsession, growing up, and testing the limits we will take for love. Set in the backdrop of Saint Perpetua's College, this is a multi-POV story that follows Laura (a shy freshman from Mississippi), and Carmilla (an enthralling, adventurous senior from Austria), as they engage in a sapphic rivals-to-lovers push and pull vying for the affection of the mysteriously alluring Professor De Lafontaine. Gibson takes her readers into a dark, sexy, bloody world of toxic love and obsession, and fills in sentimental elements transition of from innocent girlhood into growing womanhood (highs and lows of first love, making mistakes and learning), and weaves a tale that humanizes creatures of the night.

Gibson's writing is lush and evocative--she creates delicious tension between our primary characters at just the right time that leaves you eager. Her primary characters are well developed, have solid grounding, yet just enough morally grey that helps you stay on your toes. Gibson writes spice extraordinarily well and describes pleasure from the female gaze expertly. While this book was written as a sequel to Dowry of Blood, you don't need to read it before diving into An Education in Malice. However, we do receive a nice cameo from one of Dowry's characters, and it enriches the experience having some context for this character's entrance.

I overall really enjoyed this book, (3.75 stars, rounded to 4), yet there were a few things I was a little hesitant on. While this may fit more in obsession trope, I didn't feel the build up to Carmila and Laura's relationship to fully feel the love obsession. They went from hating each other to wanting each other so quickly, and while I can fully believe the sexual attraction, I personally needed a little more exposition to believe the extent of their love. It felt like Gibson knew where there dynamic was, and we needed to catch up. Similarly, later in the novel when we meet Isis, I felt we needed additional context and storytelling around her story and the significance between her and De Lafontaine to truly feel the full emotional impact Gibson lays out. Lastly, I was very intrigued by the academic backdrop of Saint Perpetua's and besides small scene groundwork, we don't get to know a lot about it, and I would have loved to learn more about the institution setting. Regardless, this was a very strong novel from Gibson and dark academia enemies to lovers readers should definitely pick this one up!

(Same review posted on Storygraph)

An Education in Malice is a sapphic Carmilla retelling intoxicatingly chocked full of desire, rivalry, and intimacy set amidst a dark academia background in the 1960s.

Uneven power dynamics, inappropriate relationships between professor/student(s), and yearning are central themes in Gibson’s second novel in the Dowry of Blood saga.

Gibson weaves intricate and delicate stories with her indulgent vocabulary and masterful character creation. An Education in Malice has quickly become a favorite of mine.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit, and S.T. Gibson for an advanced review copy of An Education in Malice in exchange for my honest review.

This stunning sequel to A Dowry of Blood is exactly the kind of spooky read I needed.

Set in 1968 and told from the POV of Laura - a college freshman from Mississippi - and Carmilla - a senior from Austria, the story of these two women's descent into the darkness is sensual and bloody.

I enjoy a good Sapphic academic rivals to lovers story, and this does not disappoint by any means. Gibson's writing drew me in so much that I was sympathizing with the vampires. I enjoyed the reappearance of one of the characters from A Dowry of Blood also and hope to see more in the next book!

This series can be read out of order.